A win, a title, and now, the district

ALPENA - It's no big secret the road hasn't been so nice for the Petoskey High School boys' basketball team this season.

However, the road well traveled paid huge, HUGE dividends when the Northmen most needed it Friday night.

Dustin Dibble scored 24 points, Chad Ellis had 12, and Steve Behan added 11 as Petoskey clinched a share of the Big North Conference title with a back-and-forth, nail-biting 55-48 victory over Alpena in front of a healthy gathering at the Alpena High School gym.

"I've never won a conference championship before," said Dibble, who transferred to Petoskey from Charlevoix this season. "There's no way to describe it right now. We've always struggled on the road, especially early on in the season so we just wanted to come out and just take it to them."

The victory lifted Petoskey to 15-5 overall and 7-3 in the Big North. It shares the league championship, its first since 2004, with Cadillac, which beat Traverse City Central, 53-29, on Friday to also finish 7-3 in the league. For Alpena, 14-5, 6-4, Sean McLain scored 14 points and Mike Stender added 10.

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"Our guys have played great all season long and they deserve to be league champs," said Dennis Starkey, who now has nine league championships in 21 seasons at Petoskey. "It seems like every game we've gotten key contributions from different guys, but I thought this game it was really our team defense.

"That really was the key."

Now, the Northmen turn their attention to another hill to climb, this one in the state tournament. They open a Class B district tournament 7 p.m. today, Monday, at Roscommon against the host Bucks, 16-4.

"We'll really enjoy this (league championship)," Starkey said. "To win a Big North Conference championship is quite an accomplishment any year, and this team deserves it, but we know we have to refocus for the tournament.

"We won't be satisfied with just one championship."

The win over Alpena marked Petoskey's second straight league road win after the Northmen had lost their first three in a row away from home in the conference. And they did it by making things difficult inside for Alpena's two big men, 6-foot-9 senior Eric Puls and 6-7 junior Nathan Kindt - much like they did in a 55-44 win in Petoskey in late January.

Puls, who entered Friday's contest as the league's leading scorer at just over 20 points a game, was held to just nine points. Kindt had seven.

Petoskey senior forward Mark Hamel, who stands 6-3, matched up against Puls and didn't give the senior much room to operate. Puls did not score a field goal until late in the second quarter, a quarter which saw the lead change hands four times.

"Mark Hamel did a great job matching up against a very good player in Puls," Starkey said. "There's nobody that can guard him like Mark can and it really started with Mark. To hold someone like that to nine points is something."

Dibble, who entered the game tied with Alpena's Eric Puls for the Big North scoring lead, won the conference scoring title as he outscored Puls, 24-9.

Dibble was, as has become the norm, solid and efficient. And so was Petoskey's defense - like it has increasingly been all season - as it forced Alpena into four straight turnovers in the closing two minutes of the half, leading to a 9-2 first-half closing run and a 25-20 lead.

"That was a big boost for us heading into the locker room," Starkey said.

Behan, who had three 3-pointers on the night, hit two third-quarter triples as the Northmen lead increased to 10, 40-30, entering the fourth. Dibble opened the fourth quarter with an end-to-end dribble drive for a bucket, then Hamel added a steal-and-layup and the Northmen lead was 14, 44-30, with 6 minutes, 46 seconds.

However, Alpena clawed back and twice cut Petoskey's lead to four points, the last with just 36 seconds left, 52-48.

"Give Alpena credit for getting back in it," Starkey said. "We got back on our heels a little bit in the fourth quarter and turned down some (shots) we should've probably taken. With good intentions though, our guys knew they had to come out and chase."

Ellis, who had seven of hits points in the fourth quarter and finished the night with nine rebounds, muscled up an inside shot, was fouled, and made the free throw with 27.5 seconds left for the final margin, and end Alpena's comeback hopes.

The combination of Ellis and Hamel on Puls and Kindt was the key factor in Petoskey pulling out the victory.

"It was every bit as important that we did a good job on Kindt too because he is a 6-7 rugged post player and Chad did a great job on him and came up with several key rebounds," Starkey said.

It was Petoskey's fifth straight victory and its 11th in its last 13th start.

"I've played soccer, track and basketball and it's always hard to get a conference championship competing against big schools, so this is very special," Hamel said. "It's just a great thing for all these guys to get this. We've been playing really well lately. It's just all coming together right now."